Isn't Will the core of me? Whose will is it anyway?

 So this has been the #1 puzzle for me. You can contemplate reality and see many things, but before long you will return to the usual state of doing things. And when we decide to do things that seems irrefutably to be proof that we exist as separate entities that can chose what we do quite separately from other people and the world. Sartre says we chose what we are, placing choice even above any sense of existence. We may progress to the realisation that there is no substance called "me" no soul, but we just move this me into the Will wherever that comes from. A pure self sitting at the centre of all our decisions like a King.

So this is work in progress but two obvious avenues blow this apart.

(1) What do we chose? A King may have whatever he wants but he doesn't chose what he wants. SRH blows this apart immediately. Armed with the power of do what we want, we are immediately powerless to want what we want. So choice enters this crazy realm where we might chose what we don't want just to prove our freedom and independence. What an apparent fool is this.

But its worse cos a little psychological investigation reveals all kinds of problems with choice. There is "suggestion" used at its extreme in Hypnosis and advertising. And then seduction, persuasion and basic advertising. There are many ways to get us to change our mind. Often people will be left refusing to change their mind just on principle to prove their mind and choices have integrity.

One thing to note is that investigations into hypnosis reveal that we can't be persuaded to do anything. We a have deep sense of morality that stops us from going "crazy." People may suggest crazy things but actually deep down, even when we are confused, we know what we are not going to do. Although soldiers have a huge amount of training to weaken this so they do in fact do things they don't want to do, like killing, but this leads to huge psychological conflicts and struggles. It's not easy. And we can say that this deep morality is in part determined by our culture. What is normal is the West like eating animals, is cruel and horrible in many places. And even eating people which the West considers horrible, is acceptable in some places. So even many of our deep decisions are determined from outside us. Now at its deepest level when we see "truth" then we have a solid basis, but this "truth" is not decide by us. To get there we need go beyond ourselves.

So our "choice "is not so singular and isolated. Our most personal choice is really part of a wider world!

(2) The other thing is that while Will exists, it is not about us. As we develop our Will becomes less concerned with "me" and more concerned with the general state of affairs. At its peak we go beyond self-interest and Will what is best. We are compassionate and motivate by a will to make things better and help people. This is a much greater more magnanimous Will than the small one that is only concerned with me.

So the issue here is that a Will that is concerned for the world and other people as much as the self, Is this really "my" will?

The problem for small wills is not who they belong to, but who they serve.